ON THE HISTORY OF RIVERS

for Emily & Jon

Like water, love will find a way,
running though cracks, around rocks,
seeking a channel that patiently waits
to display fiery diamonds to the sun.

The headwaters can be tracked if you’re
willing to bushwhack back through Time,
back to that moment, the exact second,
the first look given-the sideways glance,

when a flash bulb lights up the Cosmos,
as two minds embrace an audacious idea,
two hearts catch in a common rhythm,
four ears fill with the uncaged beating.

In the Adirondacks, by Lake Tear of The Clouds,
a persistent dripping gathers the Lordly Hudson,
much as the evening dews in a green Vermont field
collect in rills before creeping silently toward streams.

Now the waters have been joined, and the river you
knew would form has already flowed through Texas,
Massachusetts, and Maine. It laughs at the rocks ahead.

Love will find a way.

 For two former students who fell in
love on a field trip to Vermont, and
twelve years later were married.

July 26, 2014

 



All written material © Bill Schechter, 2016
Contact Bill Schechter